The Marshall County Commissioners received some troubling news about the county’s health insurance. Costs are going up.
Tony Nyers from The Healy Group explained to the commissioners what statistics are creating an increase in the figures.
“What we did is we measured 12 months that end in March because that was the most recent data that Advantage was able to provide for us,” advised Nyers. “In this situation, the total hospital cost the prior year was $281,000 and it’s up to $508,000 this year. That’s a very significant change. For the same 12 month periods combined you’re looking at $1.467 million versus last year $1.021 million for a little more than a 40 percent increase over last year.”
He went on to explain that just because the county’s costs have gone up 40 percent doesn’t mean that’s what the county will incur.
Nyers also said that there are more claims being paid out than premium money coming in. The total impact on the renewal of insurance will be based upon if the claims continue as they are.
There hasn’t been a double digit increase for the county for several years but this year will be different. Nyers said in the marketplace he’s seen 10-15 percent increases but Marshall County will see an increase of 20-25 percent.
“Part of the reason the increase will be that bad is this is our first renewal after January 2014. We’re going to see some new taxes. The health insurance tax and the reinsurance fee will be hitting the plan and that’s going to have a five percent impact. That’s part of the PPACA and every fully insured health plan is being hit with that.”
That five percent increase was figured into his projection.
Nyers noted that Marshall County’s premiums have been exceptionally low for employees. Commission President Kevin Overmyer said that may need to change.
Nyers added that there are several options to review and the commissioners will discuss those in a future meeting.
